Tuesday, August 27, 2013

An emmy award-winning writer-producer, World War II
veteran and charismatic professor who restructured the screenwriting program at
UCLA, William Froug could weave a story.

Froug, 91, died Sunday in Sarasota, leaving behind four
children — Suzy Allegra, Nancy Earth, Lisa Froug-Hirano and Jonathan Froug —
four grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.

“He's going to be missed,” said Steve Johnson, an actor
and screenwriter who met Froug through the Liars' Club — an informal gathering
of writers and storytellers that was started in 1953 by John MacDonald and
Mackinley Kantor at the Plaza Hotel restaurant in downtown Sarasota.

Even in a room full of storytellers, Froug could spin a
tale.

“He was one of those guys; he'd done everything, he'd
been everywhere,” Johnson said. “He'd filled up his life with living.”

Talk about visiting Hawaii? He used to have a place in
Hawaii, and lived there for a year.

Elvis Presley? Played pickup football with him.

Wishing for a new Corvette? He owned one of the first —
ever.

“He saw a picture of a new car in 1953 and it was a
Corvette; he fell in love with it — he was a radio producer back then,”
recalled Richard “Doc” Glidewell, who sat next to Froug at Liars' lunches and
drove him there the past few years. “He was living in L.A. and he decided he
wanted one of those, and there weren't any of those in L.A. He found a dealership
in San Francisco, he bought it sight unseen, they put it on a truck and pulled
it up to the CBS building.”

“I've heard him described as someone whose presence was
large — larger than life,” Lisa Froug-Hirano said of her father.

Froug-Hirano said her father protected his children from
the Hollywood scene.

Sure, once there were swimming lessons from Esther
Williams — he replied to an ad where she was offering them for $5. Or Froug
brought Richard Chameberlain — then a Hollywood heartthrob as Dr. Kildare — to
her sister Nancy's middle school function.

Or when Willie Mays, making a cameo appearance on
“Bewitched,” stopped to sign an autograph for her.

“I was over the moon to meet Willie Mays,” said
Froug-Hirano, who was 14 at the time.

Froug's biography reads like a Hollywood screenplay.

He was born May 26, 1922, in New York City and adopted by
William and Rita Froug of Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was raised and where
he graduated from high school.

That was followed by an undergraduate degree from the
University of Missouri School of Journalism in 1943.

He entered the Navy upon graduating and was selected for
the V7 Officer Training Program at Columbia University.

As a “90-Day Wonder,” officer, Froug served aboard a
Subchaser in the Pacific stationed at Pearl Harbor and earned command of his
own ship, the PC800, in 1945.

During long patrols, Froug honed his writing skills, his
daughter said.

After his honorable discharge in 1946, he sold his first
novella to “True Detective Magazine” in 1946.

Froug then got into radio writing and rose to Vice
President, Programs, CBS Radio Hollywood by 1956.

Froug later got involved in television as the
storytelling power of that medium developed. In the 1958-59 Awards, Froug won
an Emmy and Producer of the Year awards for the ALCOA-Goodyear Theatre
production of “Eddie.”

As a writer-producer, he had a hand in iconic series such
as “Adventures in Paradise,” “Twilight Zone,” “Bewitched,” and “Gilligan's
Island.”

Froug was nominated for another Emmy as producer on
“Bewitched.”

He rose to become the Executive Producer in Charge of
Drama for CBS, and that segued into his true passion — teaching.

While at CBS he began lecturing at USC's Film School.

He went on to become a full professor at UCLA — and was
proudest about his accomplishments as a teacher.

Froug's books include several essential guides to
screenwriting and an autobiography, “How I Escaped From Gilligan's Island.”

After moving between Sarasota and California, Froug
settled on Sarasota because of his attachment to the Liars' and the camaraderie
there.

Author John Jakes said he will most remember Froug's
genial nature.

“I met Bill for the first time about seven or eight years
ago when I joined the Liars, and we were friends from day one,” Jakes said. “I
enjoyed his wit, his stories of LA LA Land — he was full of them.”

Froug-Hirano said her father delighted in Sarasota.

“He had a great group of friends,” she said. “He just
enjoyed Sarasota and the great group of friends.”

Froug will be cremated and his ashes will be scattered in
the Pacific Ocean by the Navy.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Broadway star Julie Harris, who won an unprecedented five
Tony Awards for best actress, has died. She was 87.

Actress and family friend Francesca James says Harris
died Saturday at her home in West Chatham, Mass. She had previously suffered
two strokes.

Harris' Tony-winning roles ranged from the flamboyant
Sally Bowles in "I Am a Camera" to the reclusive Emily Dickinson in
"The Belle of Amherst," a one-woman show.

Television viewers knew her as the free-spirited Lilimae
Clements in the 1980s series "Knots Landing."

Harris leaped to fame at age 24 playing a lonely
12-year-old tomboy in "The Member of the Wedding." She repeated the
Broadway role in the 1952 film version. She was also James Dean's romantic
co-star in "East of Eden."

Friday, August 23, 2013

Russian cinematographer Vadim Ivanovich Yusov died today,
August 23, 2013, in Moscow. He was 84. Vadim also served as a professor at the
Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography. He was known for his collaborations with
Andrei Tarkovsky on “The Steamroller and the Violin:, “Ivan's Childhood”
directed by Andrei Rublev “Solaris” and with Georgi Daneliya on “I Step Through
Moscow”. He won a number of Nika Awards and Golden Osella for Ivan
Dykhovichny's “The Black Monk” at the Venice International Film Festival in
1988.

Born in Leningrad, Russia Yusov was the cinematographer
on 1974’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “Mexico in Flames” directed by
Sergei Bondarchuk and starring Franco Nero and Ursula Andress.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

The film franchise of Romero Marchent has lost another of
its members with the death of actor
Carlos Romero Marchent. Son of author and
screenwriter Joaquin Romero Marchent, and brother of Rafael Romero Marchent,
director of many spaghetti westerns in the 1960s and 1970s, the director and
screenwriter Luis Romero Marchent Joaquín , and Ana Maria Romero Marchent
production manager.

Carlos began his career in the late 1950s appearing in “Saeta
rubia” (1956) then such productions as “Un fantasma llamado amor” (1957) “El
hombre del paraguas blanco” (1958). In the sixties his career continued and he
appeared in Spaghetti western such as “Zorro's the Avenger” (1962) “Dollars for
a Fast Gun” (1965) and “Cut-Throats Nine” (1970) In the late 1970s he
participated in TV serials like 'Curro Jiménez’ (1977-1978), where he played
the role of Gaston, and 'Cañas y barro’, as Sangonero.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

In addition to iconic TV series such as 'Perry Mason,'
'Gunsmoke' and 'Peyton Place,' Ted Post directed episodes of 'Rawhide' and the
films 'Hang 'em High' and 'Magnum Force' with Clint Eastwood.

Ted Post, a veteran television and film director who
directed a young Clint Eastwood on TV's "Rawhide" and later directed
the film legend in the hit movies "Hang `em High" and "Magnum
Force," has died. He was 95.

Los Angeles Times

By Dennis McLellan

August 20, 2013, 1:57 p.m.

Post, who had been in failing health, died early Tuesday
at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, said his daughter, Dr. Laurie Post.

Beginning with an episode of the TV dramatic anthology
series "Danger" in 1950, Post went on to direct segments of series
such as "Armstrong Circle Theatre," "Schlitz Playhouse of
Stars," "Medic," "Waterfront," "Perry
Mason," "The Rifleman" and "Gunsmoke."

For television in the '60s, he directed series such as
"Twilight Zone," "The Defenders," "Combat!" and,
most frequently, "Peyton Place," the hit continuing romantic drama
that aired up to three times per week.

Post also directed more than 20 episodes of
"Rawhide," the popular western series launched on CBS in 1959
starring Eric Fleming and Eastwood.

Post went on to direct Eastwood in the 1973 film
"Magnum Force," the first of the "Dirty Harry" sequels
featuring Eastwood's signature San Francisco police inspector,
"Dirty" Harry Callahan, first seen in the Don Siegel-directed
"Dirty Harry" two years earlier.

Among Post's other film are "Beneath the Planet of
the Apes" (1970), "The Harrad Experiment" (1973) and "Go
Tell the Spartans" (1978). He also directed the 1976-77 TV series
"Rich Man, Poor Man — Book II" and the 1986 TV-movie remake of
"Stagecoach."

Born in Brooklyn on March 31, 1918, Post began thinking
of a show business career while working weekends as an usher at the Loew's
Pitkin Theatre in Brooklyn in the late '30s.

He studied acting in a workshop taught by a former
actress with the Moscow Art Theater but soon gave up thoughts of becoming an
actor and began directing at a summer stock theater on Long Island.

After serving in the Army during World War II, he resumed
directing in the theater. That included directing Bela Lugosi in a 1948
production of "Dracula" at the Norwich Summer Theatre in Connecticut.

Post is survived by his wife of 72 years, Thelma; his
daughter, Dr. Laurie Post, a clinical psychologist; his son, Robert Post, dean
of Yale Law School; four grandchildren and his brother Joe and sister Ruth.

Elmore Leonard, the legendary crime and western novelist
and screenwriter who wielded sharp prose and created quirky misfit characters
to captivate a legion of readers, has died, his literary agent said Tuesday.

The 87-year-old writer, who had been recovering from a
stroke, wrote novels in the crime and Western genres, as well as short stories
and screenplays. He recently won a lifetime achievement award from the National
Book Foundation.

"For a half-century, Elmore Leonard has produced
vibrant literary work with an inimitable writing style," said the
foundation's executive director, Harold Augenbraum.

He is the master of quirky, well-drawn characters, snappy
dialogue, clever plot twists and a narrative style so spare it reads like
haiku. Its simple beauty can put a bullet through your heart.

He thinks most crooks are dumb, and that dumb is funny.
He likes a good caper and the violence seems to be almost incidental, more like
an occupational hazard.

Born in New Orleans, Leonard and his family moved to
Detroit, the city that became his literary canvas. He had been writing for
decades and supported his family by churning out lines that sold Chevy trucks,
all the while saving his best for himself. He'd get up at 5 each morning and
write until 7 before heading off to the day job at an ad agency. He quit that
day job in 1961.

He first wrote Westerns and Hollywood discovered one of
his stories -- "3:10 to Yuma" and made it into a film twice. When
Westerns went out of style, he turned to crime fiction. He created some of
popular fiction's most memorable tough guys: trigger happy federal marshal
Raylan Givens, streetwise Hollywood wannabe Chili Palmer and smooth talking
bank robber Jack Foley.

Some of his famous novels, such as "Get Shorty"
and "Hombre," have been made into movies.

He's won awards such as the Grand Master Edgar Award from
the Mystery Writers of America and the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Award for
outstanding achievement in American literature.

"He was truly a giant of the genre and will be
sorely missed by fans all around the world," the Mystery Writers group
said.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Fred Kennamer died in Los Angeles on August 13, 2013.
Fred was born in October 19, 1958 in Michigan. He grew up in Rhode Island and has
been in California since a teenager. He went to high School in San Diego
County, College at UC Berkeley, and has been in Los Angeles since the late
eighties. He was married to Costumer/Costume Designer Winifred Kennamer (nee
Clements) and has three children.

Fred was an assistant director and production manager on
“Oblivion” (1994).

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Memorable as a punk terrorizing Janet Leigh in the Orson
Welles crime thriller, he also appeared in such films as "Blackboard
Jungle," "Hatari!" and "To Live and Die in L.A."

Valentin de Vargas, a veteran character actor who
terrified Janet Leigh in a darkened Mexican motel room in the Orson Welles film
noir classic Touch of Evil, has died. He was 78.

De Vargas died June 10 of myelodysplastic syndrome in
Tulsa, Okla. He was laid to rest Tuesday at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in
New Mexico; his daughter, Los Angeles interior designer Vanessa de Vargas, said
the family wanted to wait until his burial to announce his death.

A native of Albuquerque, N.M., the handsome, swarthy de
Vargas forged a 50-year career playing good guys and bad in dozens of films and
TV shows.

He was at his slimy best in Touch of Evil (1958) as
Pancho, one of a pack of crazy greasers who lures Leigh -- who plays the wife
of Charlton Heston's narcotics officer -- into a seedy border-town motel, where
she's drugged, gang-raped (off-camera) and framed for murder.

In one unforgettable shot, a close-up shows de Vargas'
distorted face as he hovers over Leigh and flicks out his tongue like a snake.
Later in the film, Heston pounds his head into a jukebox.

Earlier, de Vargas was another flawed Latino juvenile
(and classmate of Sidney Poitier) in his first film, Richard Brooks' seminal
Blackboard Jungle (1955). He didn't have a line but appeared in virtually every
school scene.

In Howard Hawks' action-packed Hatari! (1962), de Vargas
played a Mexican, Luis Francisco Garcia Lopez, a member of an international
band of animal catchers led by John Wayne in Africa. He starred with Wayne
again in another action flick, Hellfighters (1968), about oil-fire fighters.

De Vargas also was a henchman in The Magnificent Seven
(1960), a Marine in the Korean War drama The Nun and the Sergeant (1962) and a
judge in William Friedkin's To Live and Die in L.A. (1985).

His daughter Vanessa told The Hollywood Reporter how her
father called Welles "unpredictable" during the filming of Touch of
Evil; how Universal freaked out when the director cast Marlene Dietrich, on
contract at another studio, for a key role; and how amazed he was when he discovered
years later that Dennis Weaver also was in the film.

Key moments of the movie were shot along Windward Avenue
in Venice, Calif., and Vanessa said she was pleasantly surprised to find her
father's character depicted on a neighborhood mural called "Touch of
Venice" that was completed in April 2012.

On television, de Vargas had noteworthy guest-starring
turns on Bracken's World, Hill Street Blues and The Wild Wild West and appeared
on other shows including Broken Arrow, Hawaiian Eye, Bonanza, The Fugitive,
Mannix, The F.B.I., That Girl, Death Valley Days, T.J. Hooker, Dallas, The
Streets of San Francisco and Airwolf.

De Vargas was active in Nosotros, the organization
founded by Ricardo Montalban to support Latinos in show business, and he took
acting classes taught by Anthony Quinn.

De Vargas, of Spanish and Austrian descent, was born
Albert Charles Schubert on April 26, 1935, on a ranch in Albuquerque, the son
of a distributor. He moved to Los Angeles, enrolled at the all-boys Loyola
University to pursue a law degree and served in the U.S. Army. He responded to
a flyer posted at Loyola to audition for a high school student role in
Blackboard Jungle.

One of de Vargas’ uncles, Don Alvarado, played dashing
Latin lovers in silent movies and now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
His daughter with actress Ann Boyar was Joy Page, who had a pivotal role in
Casablanca as the newlywed who might have to sleep with Capt. Renault (Claude
Rains) in order to obtain an exit visa for her and her husband. Warner Bros.
studio chief Jack L. Warner, who had married Boyar after her divorce, got Page
the role.

Another de Vargas uncle, Carlos Alvarado, is thought to be
the first European/Hispanic talent agent in Los Angeles.

De Vargas was married three times: to actress Arlene
McQuade, who starred on the 1950s sitcom The Goldbergs and was among the
menacing group of evil people in the motel room with de Vargas in Touch of
Evil; to actress and model Nome de Vargas, who worked on The New Treasure Hunt
game show in the 1970s; and Diana de Vargas, who survives him.

In addition to Vanessa -- who has appeared on Design Wars
and other HGTV reality shows -- and his wife of six years, de Vargas’ survivors
include his sons Valentin and Anthony; another daughter, Marita; a sister
Marilyn; and a brother Donald.

A hundred films as a producer, a few dozen as a
screenwriter: from the second half of the '60s and '80s much, much, Italian
genre cinema, the one that filled the halls before the crisis and the advent of
cinema Piracy has passed for him. He would have turned 80 in December Luciano
Martino, who died today in Kenya. With his brother director Sergio was involved
in a factory of B movie cult today of various genres, from peplum to cop to the
sex comedies of the time. Titles such as Milano Trema - The police want
justice, Giants of Rome but also that very long list of movies that are still
in the minds of many, sexy and itchy in the years when there was no sex free on
the internet and the maximum was the B-side of Nadia Cassini and Edwige Fenech
in the shower.

Producing films like 'Giovannona Coscialunga dishonored
with honor', 'That great piece dell'Ubalda', the long series of the teacher or
the soldier, 'Cream Horn' certainly has a place in the history of Italian
cinema. Has launched many beauties of the time, including Barbara Bouchet,
Gloria Guida but especially 'invented' Edwige Fenech who was then his companion
for many years. Towards the mid-80s, when the film began to give way to the
supermarket, Martino was oriented towards producing the TV drama series such as
Turbo or TV movie as a state secret by Giuseppe Ferrara. It was he who was the
1987 debut of the then unknown Nicole Kidman chose for the TV movie An
Australian in Rome. '' Luciano - he told his brother Sergio, who was contacted
by ANSA - he loved being in Malindi, even though it was plagued by a bad bad.
Last night was fine, except for a low-grade fever, he had dinner with some
friends. Then tonight was suffering from pulmonary edema and died during the
flight to Nairobi. Maybe - he concludes - has gone the way he wanted.''

Edwige Fenech sobs:'' We loved one another so well, it is
a life of respect that is gone today. We are the United States, as it has been
part of my life. I am so saddened that I can hardly speak of him now '. Lino
Banfi fondly recalls her career and profitability:'' A Luciano Martino I owe so
much: we have come a long piece of road together, punctuated by more than 40
films he has produced and largely directed his brother Sergio'' . Among the
anecdotes, Banfi said:'' As a joke from the past thirty years and I Edwige
Fenech, used to say that he should put on the table a picture of both of the
same size: we made you enrich the provocavamo. And he answered: I will have
been worthwhile. He was right.'' After several appearances in minor roles,''
among soldiers, doctors and high school students - jokes Banfi alternating
emotion to smile - my first starring role was in the film, the doctor is with
Colonel (1980). The last we have achieved together is coach in football 2. In
between there are so many interests: I can proudly say that in the 'didactic
branch', as we called goliardic, having started as a janitor, then I was
promoted to full professor, and even the principal. I only missed the move to
Director of Education.'' Film scollacciati? '' They were very clean. Also
because - jokes - the actresses were continually in the shower.'' After many
experiences together'' has remained a great friendship between us: he was a
great man, I love him very much.''

Saturday, August 10, 2013

STAPLETON, Ala. -- Jody Payne, a guitarist who toured
with Willie Nelson for more than three decades, has died. He was 77.

Baldwin County Coroner Stan Zinson says Payne died at
5:12 a.m. Saturday at a hospital from cardiac problems. He says Payne got up early
in his house in Stapleton, Ala., feeling ill, and his wife called an ambulance.

He says Payne had a long history of cardiac problems.

According to a 2011 profile in The Mobile Press-Register,
Payne toured with Nelson from 1973 to 2008. He retired to Stapleton, with his
wife Vicki. There he continued playing music, teaching the guitar at a local
music store.

A post on Willie's Nelson's Facebook page about Payne's
death said, "Our friend will be missed."

Thursday, August 8, 2013

The Five Easy Pieces Oscar nominee also known for such
films Nashville and Alfred Hitchcock’s final pic Family Plot has died at 74.
Karen Black recently had turned to crowd funding to help with her long battle
against cancer. Her husband, Stephen Eckelberry, confirmed Black’s death in a
Facebook post: “It is with great sadness that I have to report that my wife and
best friend, Karen Black has just passed away, only a few minutes ago,” he
wrote. “Thank you all for all your prayers and love, they meant so much to her
as they did to me.”

Black began her acting career in Off-Broadway shows
before starring in three short-lived Main Stem productions from 19655-67. She
also appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1966 romantic dramedy You’re a Big Boy
Now. Several late-’60s TV guest roles on such shows as The Big Valley and
Adam-12 led to her casting in the 1969 counterculture classic Easy Rider. A
year later she and Jack Nicholson, who’d also appeared in Easy Rider, landed
their breakout roles in Five Easy Pieces. Black earned a supporting actress Oscar
nomination and won the Golden Globe and NBR Award. She would add a second Globe
four years later for The Great Gatsby. Black starred in films throughout the
‘70s, including Airport ’75, The Day of the Locust, Robert Altman’s Nashville
and Hitchcock’s Family Plot. In 1975 she also starred in the cult-classic ABC
telepic Trilogy of Terror, playing four roles in the three segments. She
continued to work in TV and film for the rest of her life, even after being
diagnosed with cancer. In March, she stated a GoFundMe page in the hope of
raising $17,000 for a two-month treatment in Europe. She brought in more than
double that amount in a single day and ultimately ended up raising more than
$61,000. Last night, Eckelberry posted on the site, “The kind people at the Motion
Picture Television Fund helped place her in a nursing facility, where she is
now. The cancer is still spreading slowly and it takes its toll.”

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Western cartoonist and author Stan Lynde, creator of the
nationally syndicated "Rick O'Shay" comic strip, has died of cancer
in Montana. He was 81.

His "Rick O'Shay" comic strip began in 1958 and
ran for 20 years with an average daily readership of about 15 million people.
In 1979, he launched another comic strip, "Latigo," which ran through
1983. Lynde died Tuesday in Helena, where he lived with his wife.

Myron Stanford "Stan" Lynde was born in
Billings in 1931 and was raised on a cattle and sheep ranch on Montana's Crow
Indian Reservation. His mother gave him crayons and paper and taught him to
draw to keep her young son occupied, said Lynde's sister, Lorretta.

"Cowboys were my heroes," Stan Lynde told the
Independent Record in December 2012. "I followed them around and they
played with me."

His parents read him the cartoons in the Sunday
newspaper, and he said it was an "epiphany" when he learned that
people were paid to write and draw cartoons.

"I wanted to be a cartoonist all my life _ from age
5 or 6, that's what I wanted to do," Lynde said in December.

He drew daily comics in high school and created the comic
strip "Ty Foon" for the Navy newspaper while he served during the
Korean conflict.

In the 1950s, he moved to New York, where he drew on his
ranch background and his affinity for Western humor to create the "Rick
O'Shay" strip that included characters such as gunslinger Hipshot
Percussion, banker Mort Gage and a kid named Quyat Burp who lived in the
western town of Conniption.

The characters in the comic strip were composites
"of the old time cowboys and the people I knew growing up," Lynde
said.

He moved back to Montana in 1962 after his "Rick
O'Shay" cartoon was established and appearing in about 100 papers
including the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and the Philadelphia
Inquirer.

When Lynde retired from cartooning, he wrote eight
Western novels featuring the character Merlin Fanshaw. He also wrote a
historical novel, "Vigilante Moon."

Late last year, Lynde donated some of his original art,
memorabilia and possessions to the Montana Historical Society in Helena,
including his trademark hat.

"Stan was an incredibly creative and soft-spoken
man," said Bruce Whittenberg, director of the Montana Historical Society.
"You couldn't help but respect him. He was such a class act."

Helena artist Bob Morgan called Lynde a "real
gentleman" who loved cartooning and "was a great contributor to
Montana."

"I feel very blessed," Lynde told the IR in
December. "I've been able to do the work I love for an appreciative
audience. I love this state and people of this state. If my tombstone said
something about Montana, I'd be really happy. I've never met any state with
people who have such character."

Lynde and his wife, Lynda, moved to Ecuador in January
but returned to Helena this spring when he became ill.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Farewell to Toni Secchi, World War II resistance partisan
and director of photography.

Italian cinematographer, director, screenwriter, Antonio
Secchi died in the night between Saturday and Sunday June 6 and 7 at age 88 at
his home in Zoanno Ponte di Legno, Brescia, Italy where he has lived since
1975, the year he decided to retire from the film industry , Antonio Secchi was
also, in his youth and Italian soccer player.

During his film career he used various pseudonyms,
including Toni Secchi, Tony Secchi, Tony Secchy and Tony Dry.

Secchi, after studying at Andrea Doria, High School
participated as a partisan in the war of liberation during World War II in the
division of Spero Tito Fiamme Verdi, fighting in the Battle of Mortirolo on
April 19, 1944 and was wounded. After the war he joined FC's Tradate, where he
was a goalkeeper, playing in the C series.

He began his career as a cinematographer in 1946 as a
camera operator in newsreels, and graduated to a cinematographer in the film “Morte
di un amico” (Death of a Friend) directed by Franco Rossi (1959). Later, he
worked with such directors as Giuseppe de Santis, Renato Castellani, Florestan
Vancini, Damiano Damiani, John Huston, Alessandro Blasetti, Pupi Avati.

Secchi worked on numerous productions, including “The
Bible” by John Huston. He was the director of “Una padella calibro 38″ (Panhandle
38). He was a member of the A. I.C. (Italian Association of Cameramen

Saturday, August 3, 2013

On Friday August 2, 2013 the well-known Slovak actor
Joseph Adamovič died at 74. He was co-founder of the Academy of Arts in Banska
Bystrica, with his wife-actress Božidara Turzonovová.

Jozef Adamovič was a Slovak theater and film actor,
teacher and director He appeared in more than 120 television productions,
series and film projects, and was the winner of Slovak Literary Fund .

Adamovič played in films during his studies. He graduated
in 1956 and then went to Bratislava, where in 1960 he graduated at the Academy
of Performing Arts. In the same year he became a member of the Slovak National
Theatre, where he worked until 1991. He created 60 theatrical characters (Cornelle:
Cid, Gozzi: The King Stag, Goldoni: Dance Teacher, Shakespeare: Midsummer
Night's Dream, Richard II., King Lear, Edgar, Rostand: Cyrano de Bergerac).
Initially he played the romantic figure, later in his first film role he was a
realistic tragic character.

His wife is actress Božidara Turzonovová. Both were
active in Banska Bystrica Academy of Arts, and Joseph was a co-founder of the
college and lecturer at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts. He leaves his wife and
two children Andrea and Lucia.

Film and television actress and producer Gail Kobe died
yesterday August 1 at the age of 82. Her first major film was Cecil B.
DeMille’s epic The Ten Commandments in 1956. She went on to appear in dozens of
TV shows throughout her career, earning an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of
Dr. Anne Warner on the 1960s TV series Dr. Kildare. Her other TV credits
include soaps Peyton Place and Bright Promise. She also starred in such TV
classics The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, Bewitched, Hogan’s Heroes, The Mod
Squad, Mission Impossible and The Outer Limits and appeared in over 50
Westerns, including, Rawhide, The Virginian, Maverick, Daniel Boone and
Gunsmoke. She moved into producing daytime dramas during the 1970s and 80s with
credits including Days of Our Lives, Texas, Another World, The Bold And The
Beautiful, and Guiding Light, for which she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy
Award. For the past two years, she resided at the Motion Picture Television
Fund Home, where she was very active at Channel 22, organizing the show We’ve
Got Mail, among other Fund activities.

Friday, August 2, 2013

He played the great Klingon warrior Kang on three
versions of "Star Trek" and a Native American on ABC's "Broken
Arrow."

Michael Ansara, the rugged character actor who played
Klingon commander Kang on three different Star Trek TV series, has died. He was
91.

Ansara, who was married for a brief time in the 1950s to
the late Jean Byron, who played the mom on The Patty Duke Show.

Born in a small village in Syria to American parents,
Ansara starred as Native Americans on two 1950s primetime series: the ABC
Western Broken Arrow as Cochise and as Deputy U.S. Marshal Sam Buckhart, an
Apache, on NBC's Law of the Plainsman.

Ansara is beloved by Star Trek fans as one of only seven
actors to play the same character on three versions of the sci-fi series: on
the original (in the 1968 episode "Day of the Dove"), on Deep Space
Nine (1994's "Blood Oath") and on Voyager (1996's "Flashback").
Kang was a legendary warrior.

He also had major roles in such films as 1953's Julius
Caesar and The Robe (as Judas); Jupiter’s Darling (1955); 1961's Voyage to the
Bottom of the Sea (he also appeared in the subsequent ABC series); The
Comancheros (1961) with John Wayne; The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); Guns
of the Magnificent Seven (1969); The Bears and I (1974); The Message (1977);
and It’s Alive (1974).

Ansara came to the U.S. with his American parents at the
age of 2. As a teen, he and his family relocated to California, and he entered
Los Angeles City College with the intention of becoming a doctor.

A stint at the Pasadena Playhouse (where fellow students
included Charles Bronson, Carolyn Jones and Aaron Spelling) led to roles on
stage and in films.

He was married to Eden from 1958-74. Their son, Matthew
Michael Ansara, died in 2001. An actor, he died of an accidental heroin
overdose at age 35.

The senior Ansara's many TV appearances also included The
Untouchables, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Perry Mason, The Outer Limits, Lost in
Space, I Dream of Jeannie with his wife, Hawaii 5-0, Murder, She Wrote and the
Centennial miniseries. He also voiced the role of Mr. Freeze on the animated
Batman series.

Ansara, who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,
also was married for a brief time in the 1950s to the late Jean Byron, who
played the mom on The Patty Duke Show.

Survivors include Beverly, his wife of 36 years, his
sister Rose, his niece Michelle and nephew Michael John.

A private service is pending. In lieu of flowers,
donations can be made to St. Michael’s Antiochian Orthodox Church.

ANSARA, Michael (Michael George Ansara)

Born: 4/15/1922, Syria

Died: 7/31/2013, Calabasas, California, U.S.A.

Michael Ansara’s westerns – actor:

Only the Valiant – 1951 (Tucsos)

The Lone Ranger (TV) –
1951, 1952 (Walker, Hawk Mason)

Brave Warrior – 1952 (The Prophet)

The Lawless Breed – 1953 (Gus Hanley)

Three Young Texans – 1954 (Apache Joe)

The Lone Ranger – 1956 (Angry Horse)

Broken Arrow (TV) – 1956-1958 (Cochise)

Gun Brothers – 1956 (Shawnee Jack)

Pillars of the Sky – 1956 (Kamiakin)

The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin (TV) – 1956 (Tioka)

Last of the Badmen – 1957 (Kramer)

Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans (TV) – 1957 (Ogama)

Quantez – 1957 (Delgadito)

The Tall Stranger – 1957 (Zarata)

Frontier Doctor (TV) – 1958 (Will Carver)

Zane Grey Theater (TV) – 1959 (Henry Sidell / Fitzgerald)

The Rifleman (TV) – 1959 (Deputy U.S. Marshal Sam
Buckhart)

Law of the Palinsman (TV) – 1959-1960 (Deputy U.S.
Marshal Sam Buckhart)

About Me

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1946 I have a BA degree in American History from Cal St. Northridge. I've been researching the American West and western films since the early 1980s and visiting filming sites in Spain and the U.S.A. Elected a member of the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame 2010.